Jamie Hamilton

2015, steel, nylon, neoprene, aluminum, 70'h x 260'w x 150'd

For the past three years, artist Jamie Hamilton has been engaged in an ambitious multi-disciplinary project of training himself in the art of funambulism while building Amor Fati, a large scale portable sculptural installation of trusses, wire ropes, and nets within which high-wire and other types of performances can occur.   Because the artist integrates the roles of designer, fabricator and performer, boundaries of thought and action become porous. Like balancing on the wire, each move informs the next in a complex feedback process that supports subtle ongoing integration of form and concept. For instance, when the artist weaves his own safety net he is not only making formal decisions but taking on a position of total responsibility for his own well-being. The holistic ethos of the project engenders an aesthetic of efficiency, flexibility and grace visible in the structures and movement of Amor Fati. The ongoing self-investigation and transformation of the artist becomes a possibility for the audience both through imaginative identification and actual play on the structures. Built in modular form, with its highest towers reaching 70', Amor Fati is an adaptive, “living” structure such that each installation germinates new potential for the next.  The first installation is in a rural meadow in the mountains east of Santa Fe N.M.. Afterwards, the goal is to find settings that offer new artistic challenges in relating to existing architecture/landscape and new possibilities for collaboration with institutions, artists, performers, and varied social groups.

                                                                             -Hannah Hughes

There is a quote by Marcel Duchamp “America’s greatest works of art are her bridges and her plumbing.”  I love looking at the power lines’ graceful arc as they run between pylons.  I love standing among the bridges, their huge bolts and girders carrying the weight of trains and vehicles as they travel the city.  They are not made for me like the sidewalks and buildings of downtown, or the parks and cafes scattered about.  They are challenging unaccessible structures defying easy relation.  I feel them beckon.  They are lonely in their utility, bored with their purpose.  They want to be played upon, to give a stage to those who dare.